


Doing It My Way

by Ultra



Category: Freaks and Geeks
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Awkward Conversations, Episode: s01e10 Looks and Books, F/M, Falling In Love, Getting Together, Getting to Know Each Other, High School, Honesty, Late Night Conversations, Starting Over
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-06-06
Updated: 2010-06-06
Packaged: 2019-05-14 09:20:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,515
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14766854
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ultra/pseuds/Ultra
Summary: Lindsay realises she doesn't belong with the Mathletes anymore and leaves Milly's sleepover, only to find a familiar car parked out front and someone waiting for her.





	1. Part 1 of 3

For the first time in a long time, Lindsay felt better about life. A day or two in her old life had proven it wasn’t for her, even less so than the new life she’d tried to start. Now she felt she had a handle on some middle ground, and it felt good, as she walked out of her old friend, Milly Kenter’s house into the dark of night, considering if she dare skip going home and instead head for the nearest possible place her new friends might be at.

Hanging out with them, it was almost always fun. Sure, she got labelled a burnout and a freak for spending time with them, but living outside the box for a while was kinda cool actually. The danger aspect was both the lure and the problem with her new life. That car crash the other day had really freaked her out, to the point where she’d questioned what she was doing with her life, spending all her time with Daniel, Nick, Ken, and Kim. Besides, this whole thing had only started because she’d developed such a crush on...

“Daniel?” she was stunned to the core to find him lying on the hood of his car just down the street from her house, one arm under his head, the other dangling off the side with a lit cigarette between his fingers.

“Hey, Lindz.” He smiled in that lop-sided kind of way that he did sometimes, that never failed to make her insides turn over - it was the nicest feeling.

“What are you doing here?” she asked, as she glanced between her own house across the street and Milly’s place that she’d just come out of. “Where are the guys?”

“I dunno.” He shrugged as he pulled himself up, bending his knees into his chest as she walked over. “I was just, y’know, driving around,” he said, flicking his now spent cigarette into the road.

“That’s cool.” Lindsay nodded, not sure what else she was supposed to say.

Without a word, Daniel moved over, making room for her to pull herself up to sit beside him on the car hood. Tossing her bag and coat into the front seat, she did just that, and the pair sat in odd silence a while.

“So, how’s life back in the geek lane?” he asked her with a smirk that proved he meant no real harm with his comment that could easily have been insulting if taken the wrong way.

“It doesn’t really work for me anymore.” Lindsay sighed, “Y’know I really thought I could go back and just... I thought I’d be happy.”

“You looked happy,” he said as he looked across at her. “At that Mathlete thing, when you were kicking butt.”

“Oh, well, it’s always nice to win.” She smiled as she thought about it. “And y’know you guys all showing up to support me that was, that was really cool of you, Daniel. I know you were probably bored...”

“Nah, not totally bored,” he told her, not even needing to lie about it if he were honest. “It was actually pretty cool seein’ you do what you do,” he said, not even looking at her as he wiped some possibly imaginary dirt from his shoe. “I know we rag on you for bein’ smart and all but... truth is, we... I’m just jealous, Lindsay.”

“Yeah, right.” She rolled her eyes at that, clearly not believing him. “Like you need to be smart, Daniel. I mean, look at you,” she said, as she did just that and he stare right back now wondering what came next. “You... you have friends and people respect you for being who you are.”

“Yeah, and who am I, Lindsay?” he asked her with a shake of his head. “You know what people think of Daniel Desario? They’d think he’d be a total loser if he wasn’t getting laid,” he told her bitterly, recalling an earlier conversation with Harris, “and since me and Kim are over, I guess that just leaves me with the loser title,” he said, hopping down off the car and turning away from the one girl he’d actually come to talk to tonight.

It hadn’t necessarily been a conscious decision, but somehow whilst he was driving around town he just kept ending up back here on her street. When it happened a fourth time, he gave up, got out of the car and laid out on the hood, staring up at the stars and hoping something might just hit him, an idea or some kind of inspiration. Hell, on some stupid level, he’d actually been wishing Lindsay would notice him out there and come over, considering it almost like a miracle when it had actually happened.

Now she was here, trying to talk to him like he was a person, that way she did that made him think he actually mattered, even when the rest of the world was telling him he didn’t. It was more than he could stand right now, and all that he wanted to hear at the same time.

“You and Kim broke up?” she asked as she scooted across the car hood to get closer to him. “Daniel, I’m sorry,” she said, reaching a hand out to his shoulder just at the moment he turned around, consequently hitting him across the face by accident.

“Ow!” was his obvious reaction.

The expression on his face then, mixed with her feeling so stupid for what she’d done, left Lindsay with no sensible reaction, and instead just a burst of giggly laughter that came from somewhere deep inside her and erupted into the cool night air.

“Oh my God, I’m sorry,” she gasped, laughing hard and feeling so stupid, as she lost the ability to sit up and laid down on the hood once again with a thud.

“Yeah, well, at least when you’re laughing you’re not ripping my head off and calling me an idiot,” he reminded her, as he rounded the front of the car and pulled himself up to lay down beside her.

“I guess I was a little out of line.” She sighed as they both stared up at the night sky, talking just about as seriously right now as they ever had in their lives.

“Honestly, Lindz,” he said then, eyes focused solely on the stars, “when you got mad at us, not only were you totally right about everything but... y’know I never wanted a woman more,” he told the sky more than he told Lindsay.

“Shut up!” she said immediately, smacking him across he chest without ever even glancing his way, feeling embarrassed and stupid at the same time as warm and fuzzy inside at the comment she really hadn’t expected at all.

“I’m serious,” he said, turning his head to actually look at her then. “Girls I know, like Kim, they scream and yell and they think they know everything. Gets old.” He shrugged. “But you actually know what you’re talkin’ about, and you don’t care about your reputation or anything, you just... you’re you, Lindsay, and that’s way cooler than any of us can ever be,” he told her honestly, that she could tell as she slowly turned to look at him then and saw the sincerity in those eyes she could drown in.

Daniel Desario being genuine and serious and actually sweet to her. Wonders would never cease, Lindsay thought as she reminded herself to breathe and tried to figure out what she was supposed to say next. When nothing came to mind and his intense gaze started to burn somehow, she pulled herself up to sit on the edge of the car hood, running a shaky hand through her hair.

“Daniel...” she said, feeling stupidly nervous as he sat up beside her, so close she could feel the heat of his body next to hers.

“I know,” he said, running a hand down the edge of her face, pushing stray hair behind her ear and making her shiver in the best way. “You gotta go. Gotta run home and be a good girl for a while,” he told her with a wry smile. “I get it, Lindz,” he assured her, “but you ever wanna come back on my side of the tracks, you let me know,” he told her with a look that was unmistakable to even inexperienced little Lindsay Weir.

As Daniel moved to get off the car, her hand against his chest stopped him, pushing him back down beside her. Honest to God, Lindsay would never be able to explain what happened next for as long as she lived, but somehow she was suddenly leaning in close and kissing a somewhat startled Daniel Desario right on the lips.

Perhaps it was a reaction to the weirdness of the last few days, switching from freak to geek, and not so sure she properly fitted either side of the divide anymore. Maybe revisiting her good old life and had given her a yearning to be even more bad than she’d ever been before. Daniel’s sweet words to her should’ve been incentive enough, but in truth it was probably a mixture of all these things, and one more that was perhaps the most important. From day one, Lindsay had been waiting to have the confidence to make this moment happen, and from the way he was holding onto her now, kissing her back with a passion Lindsay barely knew existed in the world til now, Daniel had been waiting just as long for her. Now was their moment, and neither of them planned on wasting any more time.


	2. Part 2 of 3

Lindsay woke up in her own bed, met by a too bright sun and a mass of memories that collided in her brain. Her hand over her face, she processed what had happened these last few days, the way she had proven to herself once and for all that there was no going back to her old geeky life. If her time spent with Milly and the Mathletes weren’t enough to show her the truth, last night on the hood on Daniel’s car certainly had.

She blushed at the memory, but smiled all the same as she thought on it. Where the confidence had come from to kiss him like that, she really wasn’t sure, but she loved that she found it and that he seemed more than willing to kiss her back. They hadn’t got much further than that, just a couple of good long kisses. To his credit, he didn’t push like she feared he might, and she said not a word about it.

They parted on an agreement that he’d pick her up and drive her to school, and that thought made Lindsay sit up fast, reaching for the clock radio on her nightstand. She had an hour and then Daniel would be there at the end of her street waiting to take her to the place where they must face up to whatever the hell came next. Whether they were exactly a couple or not, Lindsay had no idea. Honestly, a part of her feared that this was all a trick, a ploy by Daniel and his friends to get back at her for walking out on them, but it sure hadn’t felt like a trick when they kissed.

Shaking her head free of deep thoughts that she didn’t have time for, Lindsay got herself up and dressed, knowing already that she wouldn’t be able to speak a word over breakfast for fear of what lies she might mix up right now. One thing was for certain, there was no way in hell she could tell her parents anything about Daniel - they would never, ever understand.

* * *

It was time to make a change in his life. This Daniel Desario had decided last night, after the big and final break up between himself and Kim, and just before his talk with Lindsay that ended in a couple of very hot kisses. Yep, this time he’d ended things with Kim for good, and for more reasons than he could count. Getting together with Lindsay so fast was maybe going to look bad, but as of today, Daniel didn’t care what people thought.

He knew he gave off that vibe anyway, seemed as if he didn’t care if he was labelled a freak or a loser or whatever, but every barb thrown hurt, and none so much as those Lindsay had sent flying his way a few days earlier. She was always beautiful, but never so much as when she was cutting him off at the knees, telling him just how it was. He hadn’t lied when he told her he never wanted her more. Stood next to Kim, she was a hundred times the woman of his ex, smarter and hotter and if he’d thought he could really be with her sooner, he’d have done it.

Somehow it had never worked out. In the first place, she was too good, too sweet, he couldn’t image for a moment she’d ever actually be with him. Sure, she had a crush, he’d known that forever, but there was a difference between wanting to go wild and actually doing it.

Then Nick had stepped in and he and Lindsay seemed like they were going to have their very own fairytale. That was over way faster than it should’ve been, and honestly, to Daniel, the couple always looked so awkward together anyway. He had thought at first that was wishful thinking, but now he was sure.

Peering over his sunglasses and out the drivers side window of the car, Daniel hoped he’d see Lindsay coming towards him down the street. Clearly he’d arrived here earlier than he thought, because there was no way she was going to be late for school. Sure, she was willing to take a walk on the wild side with him, but certain values were not going to leave her. She was going to be the smart and sensible one in this undefined relationship or whatever the hell this thing was, but that was okay with Daniel.

“Finally,” he said to himself as she came into view, glancing behind her as if she expected to be followed and hitching her bag further onto her shoulder as she hurried towards the car that for once didn’t have its stereo blaring.

“Hey.” She smiled, as she opened up the door and slid in beside him.

“Hey, yourself,” he told her, not saying anything else as he put the car into gear and shot out of the end of the road, tyres squealing as he did so.

With Lindsay staring out of the side window and Daniel concentrating on driving, neither of them looked at each other for at least half the trip to school, and neither really knew what to say either. It was only as they neared McKinley, and they were forced to stop for a red light that Lindsay dared to look to her right and caught Daniel looking right back at her.

“So, er... how are we gonna do this?” she asked, her bravery from the night before apparently having left her in the harsh light of day, “I mean, are we just friends or...?”

“You kiss all your friends like that?” he asked her with an amused smirk that made Lindsay giggle nervously, not least because it made her face the fact she had been the one to kiss Daniel last night, not the other way around, and her embarrassment showed as her cheeks turned pink.

“No, I don’t, I just...” she started to say, only to have him interrupt her as the light turned green and they drove on.

“Look, Lindz.” He sighed, looking only at the road ahead as he spoke. “All I know is my life ain’t so cool right now, y’know? I don’t study, I get terrible grades... I’m the loser everybody thinks I am but won’t dare to tell me because they think I’m always wasted or high or I’ll kill them or whatever.” He took one hand off the wheel to gesture some, before replacing it as he turned into the school parking lot. “I just don’t wanna be that guy anymore.”

“And that’s why you wanna be with me?” she asked him then, not sure why she was surprised by the apparent revelation. “To fix your reputation?”

“No, that’s not even it,” argued Daniel immediately, a little pissed at her for reacting this way but knowing she had every right since he really wasn’t explaining this well at all. “Lindsay, I just... y’know you showed me,” he tried to explain as he shut off the engine and turned to face her. “You told me how screwed up I was and you were right.”

Lindsay looked across at him, took in the expression that was as sincere as she’d ever seen him be, and she couldn’t be mad.

“I didn’t say screwed up,” she muttered, feeling bad all over again for the way she’d yelled at him before - he hadn’t entirely deserved it.

“You said everything else,” he told her, not at all concerned by the fact she stood up to him, in fact he’d loved it and told her as much last night, though the over-riding memory would not be what they’d said then. “I guess we were kinda using you, but I never meant for that to happen,” he explained. “I just, I liked having you around, I still want you around, okay?” he told her, as she dipped her head and wouldn’t meet his eyes, until he put he reached out to lift her chin with his finger. “I don’t care what Kim or Nick or anybody thinks. I want you, Lindsay. Okay?” he said, glad to see her smile in response.

“Okay,” she agreed, sweet as anyone had ever looked as far as Daniel could tell.

It wasn’t the first time he wondered at what an enigma she was. A geek, a beauty, a woman, a child, mad at him, in love with him. He’d never figure her out, but then that was half the appeal.

“Then let’s go,” he said as they climbed out of the car and headed into McKinley High together.

It wasn’t a particularly planned move, yet when they cleared the main doors they showed solidarity as his hand slid around hers and held on tight. It surprised Lindsay to realise that someone like Daniel might need support, and yet his grip on her might just as easily be a show of property. Lindsay wouldn’t normally like the idea of being labelled as a guy’s property, but she might just make an exception for Daniel, if only for today.

Heading down the hall, gasps and whispers were clearly audible to the couple, but neither paid any mind, Daniel Desario had been the subject of gossip and rumour for as long as he could remember, and Lindsay had started to get used to it these past weeks and months, hanging out with the so-called freaks and burnouts.

“Okay, what the hell is this?”

A comment that could not be ignored was directed squarely at McKinley’s newest odd couple by the one person both Daniel and Lindsay could’ve used not seeing so soon.

“Kim, just be cool, okay?” he urged her, rubbing his forehead as if her very presence were giving him a headache already.

“Cool?” the blonde relocated loudly, as was her way, and with wild arm gestures that seemed to come naturally. “You want me to be cool? Are you out of your frickin’ mind, Daniel?!” she yelled as she pushed him in the chest knocking him back and step where he almost bumped Lindsay who had been forced to let go of his hand in the altercation.

“No, actually for the first time in forever I’m using my own mind!” he said angrily, trying to keep his temper, but not finding it easy, truth be told. “Instead of you nagging me and yelling in my ear, tellin’ me how things are gonna be,” he accused, knowing Kim was only going to get worse but so genuinely sick of her getting at him.

She was good at making out and an easy lay, and in the beginning she’d actually made him laugh sometimes. These days she was nothing but a nagging bitch. Just a few days in Lindsay’s company had started to show Daniel there was way better in the world than his current gifrlriend, and that such a girl was not inaccessible. He didn’t have to take this crap anymore, and he certainly didn’t want it.

“So, what?” she asked with a nasty look. “You have her to tell you what to do now?” she asked, jabbing a finger in Lindsay’s direction. “You gonna try to be a geeky loser like Lindsay frickin’ Weir?”

“Hey!” the injured party quickly interjected, but Daniel shook his head, silently asking her not to dive into this, since it was his problem to handle.

“What if I am? Huh?” he asked, pushing himself in Kim’s face, just like she always did with him. “What if that’s just what I want?” he challenged her, right there in the hall for the gathering crowd of onlookers to see.

“You’re not smart enough to be a geek, Daniel,” his ex told him nastily, “so forget it.”

“You’re just jealous, Kim.” She was surprised to hear Lindsay explode then, about as stunned as Daniel was anyway, though he shouldn’t’ve been after the events of the last couple of days. “You hate it because you’re not the centre of attention for a while, that Daniel’s not going to come running when you snap your fingers,” she explained to the girl who she’d once considered a friend, though she no longer could remember why.

“Don’t bet on it, bitch,” the girl much better fitted to the title sneered.

“Oh, for God sakes, Kim,” replied Lindsay, loudly and apparently unphased, as Daniel looked on, so proud of her right now. “Have some respect for yourself. Be the bigger person. Move on,” she said with emphasis as she moved to walk away.

Daniel moved to follow, but Kim immediately got in his path one more time, poking her finger into his chest.

“Nick’s gonna kill you for this,” she said definitely and menacingly.

“Whatever, bitch!” Daniel pushed her arm away. “Get out of my face,” he said as he moved passed her, and straight to Lindsay’s’ side, throwing an arm around her shoulders and walking around the corner. “You okay?” he asked her, when they were clear of all the spectators of their confrontation with his ex.

“Yeah.” She nodded. “But y’know she may have a point about Nick.” She sighed. “He still seems kinda hung up on me.”

“He’ll live.” Daniel rolled his eyes, trying to hide the fact it bothered him at all that a guy he’d been friends with for too many years might get hurt in all of this, “Geez, I had to sit back and watch you two all over each other for a while, I’m still breathin’.” He shrugged as they stopped outside the room of Lindsay’s first class and she leaned back against the wall.

“You were jealous?” she asked, feeling flattered and surprised and all at the same time. “Of Nick?” she asked, a light laugh escaping with her words, as Daniel rested his arm against the wall by her head and leaned in close.

“Shut up!” He laughed in spite of himself, right before his lips covered hers.

The bell rang over their heads but it took a while for Daniel and Lindsay to come up for air. When something felt this good, class could wait just a minute without doing any harm, even Lindsay knew that.

What she didn’t know was that she and her new boyfriend, if he could even be called that, were being watched. Oh, she was certain many people had spotted her there, pressed against the wall by Daniel Desario, and were wondering how, what, why, and when all this had started. What she didn’t know was that one specific young man had just rounded the corner and spotted them, his face turning ashen as he saw the love of his life in the embrace of another, his heart breaking clean in two.

“No way!” he gasped, as Lindsay finally parted from Daniel and glanced his way - she felt awful.


	3. Part 3 of 3

“No way!” Neal gasped, as Lindsay finally parted from Daniel and glanced his way - she felt awful.

“Er, I gotta get to class,” said Daniel, glancing across at the three kids that stared at him and Lindsay still, before shooting his girlfriend an apologetic look and walking away down the hall.

“Sam...” his sister began, not sure what she was supposed to say after that, and apparently her brother was going to spare her the trouble of figuring it out as he cut her off.

“So, you’re dating Daniel Desario now?” he asked, his expression and tone both telling her he really wasn’t thrilled at the prospect.

“Lindsay, he’s... he’s bad news,” Neal cut in, and Lindsay was hardly surprised, after all, she knew her brother’s friend had a crush on her.

“Yeah, I heard rumours...” began Bill, determined to join in apparently, but the girl they would talk out of her latest relationship, the one she’d been waiting too long for, would not listen to them.

“Please, guys,” she urged them, waving her hand in a gesture that asked them to stop before they even got started. “Not now,” she said definitely, as she turned towards the classroom door and disappeared through it.

The three boys, including her brother, stood staring after her, still in shocked from the display they had just witnessed.

“My heart is... broken!” exclaimed Neal, loud enough for the whole school to hear, or so Bill would have guessed.

“Shut up!” Sam snapped as they moved down the hall to class.

For as long as he lived, he was sure he would never understand girls, least of all his stupid sister.

* * *

As the bell rang for lunch, Daniel Desario sped out of class down the hall and out onto the patio in the hopes of finding Nick before anybody else showed up. The last thing he needed right now was Kim, or any other McKinley students that didn’t like Daniel for whatever reason, telling his friend he’d screwed him over. It was his job to be a man and face up to Nick, tell him what had happened and take the consequences. It was how Lindsay would want him to play it, he knew.

Daniel wasn’t sure whether to call it lucky or unlucky when he spotted Nick sat alone on the steps, apparently a little out of it, but that was nothing new.

“Hey, man,” he said as he approached him, sitting down a little way along the same step, “I gotta talk to you about somethin’.”

“Don’t tell me, man, you and Kim broke up again?” Nick smiled knowingly, after all this happened every other day lately, sometimes more often!

“Well, yeah,” his friend admitted, nodding his head, “but, uh, that’s not the whole story...” he explained, pulling his hat off his head and twisting it in his hands. "See, I broke up with Kim for a reason, ‘cause I’m kinda changing my life around.”

“Are you dropping out of school?” asked Nick, looking stunned and not happy about the idea at all. “Oh my God, are you leaving town?” he guessed again, a little freaked at losing his friend who he had been through so much with, after all, he didn’t exactly have that many buddies anymore.

“No, no, nothing like that.” Daniel waved away those concerns. “it’s just... well, I made some choices, better ones, about my life and all, and...” he struggled to explain, being the kind of guy who rarely shared his feelings or whatever, he really didn’t know where to begin with this, except to say it straight and hope he didn’t get a punch in the face for his troubles. “Look, Nick, me and Lindsay, we’re kind of, y’know, together now,” he told him, looking at his boots until the words were said, then glancing sideways at his friend.

“That’s not funny, man,” he said flatly, looking like he might cry more than explode in anger, and Daniel wasn’t sure if that would be better or worse right now.

“Its not s’posed to be funny, Nick.” He sighed as he looked across at him. "It’s s’posed to be honest and stuff. Look, I just didn't want you hearin’ it from anybody else...” he tried to explain as Nick got to his feet and started pacing agitatedly.

“But she loves me,” he said definitely, pointing a stern finger into his own chest.

“Hate to break it to you, man, but she don’t.” Daniel shook his head. “I mean, as a friend maybe, but not like that,” he tried to tell him, hoping to lessen the blow, wondering why he hadn’t just let Lindsay figure this out with him in that way that only she could.

This was perhaps the most inappropriate moment for anyone else to walk into the situation, which was most likely how Ken came to appear right then.

“Hey, guys,” he said, fairly cheerily, until he saw the expressions on both their faces. “Woah, who died?” he asked as he dropped down onto the bottom step.

“Maybe it’s me,” said Nick, looking almost as devastated as when he first heard about John Bonham. “I think my heart just broke,” he added bitterly, throwing a nasty look Daniel’s way before storming off.

“Damn!” his apparent ex-friend exclaimed, slamming his hands against the step to either side of him and feeling awful.

“What the hell was that about?” Ken frowned as he looked between one angry friend and the other’s retreating form. “Did he and Lindsay get back together and break up again since I last saw them?” he asked, confused by the whole thing - something weird was definitely going on.

“No,” he heard Daniel mutter, “I just told him that me and Lindz are together now,” he said suddenly loudly, as if he were proclaiming it and didn’t care what the consequences were anymore.

On Ken’s part, he didn’t look so much surprised as proud somehow.

“You and Lindsay?” he nodded. “Dude, that’s scuzzy, even for you... but I saw it coming.” He smirked annoyingly as Daniel turned to stare at him with wide eyes.

“You did?” he checked, wondering how the hell that had happened.

“Er, yeah!” his friend told him, rolling his eyes at how dumb Daniel could be sometimes. “She’s had a crush on you since forever, and you... well, if transparency were an Olympic event, you’d win gold, silver, and bronze all at the same time,” he pointed out what he had observed. “It’s so obvious you’ve been psyching up to dumping Kim for good and picking up little Lindsay Weir as your new toy.” He shrugged it off like it was nothing, which would have been a good thing if not for what he said next. “Hey, I respect it, man. Who doesn’t want to break in a virgin once in a while?” he said, raising a hand as if he were waiting for a high five.

Daniel could only find disgust for Ken’s attitude.

“You’re sick, y’know that?” he told him as he got up to walk away, “Totally sick”

“Thank you?” he called behind Daniel, really not understanding why that was a bad thing.

* * *

Lindsay was glad to have got through at least half of today without too much drama. She had always imagined that dating Daniel would be some kind of dream come true. Of course, hanging out with him had taught her he was far from perfect, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t be right for her. It wasn’t just that he was hot, which he obviously was, Lindsay just loved the way he didn’t seem to be bothered by what anybody else thought. She loved his attitude and the way he made her laugh and his smile and... she could go on all day listing things. It made her wonder how she’d ever come to be dating...

“Nick,” she was startled to exit the school building and run right into him just outside the door.

“I’d ask why you’re in such a hurry to get out to the patio, but I already know,” he said, as he moved away from her, looking upset and she ought to have immediately guessed why. “Need to get to your new boyfriend, Lindsay?” he said nastily, clearly hurt, and that she had been expecting at least.

“Oh, so you know about me and Daniel,” she said, trying to think of something else to say next.

Most of the morning, between daydreaming about Daniel and seething over Kim’s behaviour, she’d been worrying about Nick. Unfortunately, after several hours, she still hadn’t come up with anything sensible or helpful to say when she finally faced her ex.

“He just told me!” he snapped, and she nodded in response, at least glad that Daniel had been a man and faced his friend with this instead of leaving her to drop the bombshell.

“Well, that’s good,” she said awkwardly fiddling with the strap of her school bag. “I hoped he would, so you didn’t hear it from just anybody,” she explained.

“I didn’t want to hear it at all, Lindsay!” Nick all but exploded at her, arm waving in an emphatic gesture as he turned away and then back to face her so fast she was surprised he didn’t knock himself over. “I thought... I thought you and me were like destined or something,” he told her, “that one day it’d be me and you and... and, I dunno, but I thought we’d be together!” he yelled, making a show of the both of them, and causing Lindsay’s guilt to quickly turn to anger.

It was as if he were accusing her of ruining some perfect romance they had. Truth was, she’d never really believed in their relationship, and almost felt as if she’d ended up in it by accident somehow.

“Okay, first off, you dumped me, Nick,” she snapped at him, counting off her answers on her fingers, “and second, I’m sorry, if you had some big future plan for us, but I never asked for that, okay?” she softened some as she looked up and saw the pain in his face, it really wasn’t his fault any more than it was hers. “You’re a great guy, Nick, you have a lot of good qualities,” she assured him, her hand going to his arm, “and some girl is going to be really lucky to be with you... when you’re not stoned,” she joked lightly, glad to see the smirk that appeared on his face at that, “but it’s not me, okay? It can’t be me,” she said, sad to be breaking his heart, if that’s what he felt she was doing, but knowing that being honest and straightforward was the only way she, Daniel, Nick, or anyone was going to come out of this okay.

It seemed as if Nick accepted her apology and explanation both, even if he didn’t like hearing the words she’d said. Sighing, he sat down on the wall and rubbed a hand over his face.

“It was always about Daniel, wasn’t it?” he said sadly as he glanced up at her, squinting against the sun that shone from over her shoulder. “I know, you liked him from the start, I just... I tried not to notice because I liked you so much,” he said, looking away and feeling even more dumb now than he ever had before.

“I’m sorry,” she said, and that he knew Lindsay meant sincerely.

She hadn’t meant to hurt him, he knew that. She was such a good person, not a one of them really deserved her, not him or Daniel or any guy he knew. She was a goddess amongst women to Nick, and always would be. All he really wanted was for her to be happy.

“It’s okay.” He nodded as she sat down beside him. “I guess I shoulda known it was going to happen sooner or later.”

“I guess,” agreed Lindsay with a slight smile, not sure she ever saw this coming, but knowing it was what she had always wanted on some level. “So, are we okay?” she asked Nick then, her hand on his arm. “Because, I don’t know about you but I’d really like to stay friends, if that’s cool?” 

Nick looked sideways at her and managed a smile that Lindsay couldn’t quite believe was true, but it would be.

“Yeah.” He nodded once, putting her hand over his. “Friends is very cool,” he agreed.

“Hey,” they heard and both looked up to see Daniel stood before them, shifting awkwardly as he glanced between Lindsay and Nick.

“Hey, man,” his friend greeted him, giving his ex’s hand a squeeze before he let go and stood up from the wall, wiping dust from the butt of his jeans. “Look, I’m sorry about before. I was being lame about the whole thing,” he shrugged it off, knowing this wasn’t really worth losing a good friend over - if Lindsay was happy, that was all that really mattered.

“It’s cool.” Daniel nodded, hands in his pockets and shuffling his feet. “It’s kind of a big deal so... yeah.”

“Yeah,” Nick replied in kind as Lindsay looked between the two, wondering at how dumb boys could be about friendship, so quick to fight, they were lousy at making up.

As he mumbled something about leaving the new couple alone, Lindsay watched Nick walk away and sighed.

“That went better than I hoped,” she thought aloud as Daniel replaced her ex beside her and she let her head drop onto his shoulder.

“Can’t say the same for Ken, and definitely not for Kim,” her boyfriend replied, throwing an arm around her back.

“Does it bother you,” she asked, lifting her head a little to see his face, “that you’re going to lose friends if we... date or whatever?”

“Nah. Screw everybody else, right?” He grinned, in that way that only Daniel Desario could. “What the hell do they know?”

“Exactly,” Lindsay agreed just as loudly, and smiling just as wide as he was. “They’re all losers!” she said, throwing a careless hand at the world around them that knew nothing of what that really felt or who they really were.

“Then I guess that makes us the winners, huh?” he asked, laughter dying on his lips as he looked into her eyes.

“I guess so,” she agreed, right before he kissed her, reminding her fully why she didn’t care what the rest of the world said or thought or did.

For a few moments more, there would be just the two of them, and the rest of the world could wait.


End file.
